Pressley inspires WEMO crowd

At the MMA’s Annual Meeting on Jan. 24, Boston Councillor Ayanna Pressley shared her personal story of struggles and successes, and urged more women to get involved in all levels of government.

Pressley’s impressive run contains a number of firsts. In 2009, Pressley became the first woman of color elected to the City Council in its 100-year history. In 2011, she became the first woman and first person of color in 30 years to top the at-large ticket. Again in 2013, she made history by winning re-election decisively in a competitive race.

Speaking at the Women Elected Municipal Officials luncheon, Pressley said she faced many barriers, in addition to race, when first running for office. These included running in Boston, a city often perceived as being parochial, and a lack of experience as a candidate. She quickly had to learn how to articulate her views on issues.

Finally, she said, being single with no children is seen as a “liability” in politics. She was regularly asked why she isn’t married and questioned about her sexual orientation. Women, she said, were the hardest on her, asking how she could help Boston’s schools if she didn’t have children.

Pressley said, however, her life experiences and challenges were not liabilities – they are what qualified her for office. Diversity, she said, should be viewed as a benefit.

“The true power of diversity is about more brains at work,” she said. “We can’t and should not all think the same way.”

Like many women in elected office, Pressley said, she was drafted to run. She joked that it takes seven people to convince a woman to run for office, compared to one person for a man – himself.

Women, she said, need to get out of their own way. There is never the right time or number of degrees to make you qualified and ready.

“We always think someone knows better and knows more,” she said.

Pressley stressed that now is the time to push the envelope and say “yes” to running. From being candidates to working behind the scenes writing policy and fundraising, women need to be working in all levels of government.

Cultivating talent early on in schools is also important. As a former participant in student government, Pressley said she found her voice and leadership skills running for class president in school.

Pressley said the most important question to ask yourself before running is “why?” Her answer, she said, is to save girls and eradicate poverty. She admitted that it sounds idealistic and naive, but she is OK with that, in the name of progress.

A survivor of sexual abuse as a child and sexual assault as an adult, Pressley is frank about her story and the issues that exist in households – such as addiction, poverty and sexual violence – even though they make people feel uncomfortable. If we are not talking about these issues, she said, we are not telling the whole story. It is the only way progress will be achieved.

Pressley said she was raised by a single mother. Her father struggled with addiction and was in and out of prison. Pressley said she intimately knows the impact of addiction and poverty on families.

“I’m not trying to be provocative,” she said. “I’m so candid about my story because it’s a normalized one.”

Pressley has focused on empowering girls and women and has tackled issues like teenage pregnancy, child abuse and neglect, substance abuse, hunger and homelessness, equal pay for equal work, and human trafficking. Advisors and pundits have warned her against stereotyping and pigeonholing herself by attaching her name to such issues and sharing her story, but Pressley has pushed ahead.

“Instead of running away from women’s issues, I ran toward them,” she said, because she doesn’t think there is any such thing. These issues, she said, are community issues.

A native of Chicago, Pressley came to Boston to attend Boston University. She worked as an aide for Congressman Joseph Patrick Kennedy II and as political director for U.S. Sen. John Kerry.